The maker of the Dallas Cowboys' logo has died

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Jack Eskridge designed the Dallas Cowboys' team logo after joining the team in 1959.

Story highlights

Iconic coach Tom Landry hired Jack Eskridge before the Cowboys' first season

The team needed a logo, and Eskridge, the equipment manager made one

He was a pro basketball player, his obituary says

The man behind a famous star has passed away.

Jack Eskridge designed the Dallas Cowboys' team logo after joining the team in 1959, a year before its first season kicked off. His blue star with the white highlight graces every Cowboy's helmet to this day.

Eskridge was 89 when he died near his home at a hospital outside Kansas City this week, the Dallas Cowboys' website reported Friday.

He wasn't from the Lone Star State, though he liked Texas enough to live there twice in his life for a total of 23 years -- the first time to work for the Cowboys, the second to teach school, according to his obituary.

He was once a professional basketball -- not football -- player.

Eskridge played for the Chicago Stags and the Indianapolis Jets before joining the University of Kansas as assistant coach, where he helped recruit basketball superstar Wilt Chamberlain, his obit said.

Iconic Cowboys coach Tom Landry hired him as an equipment manager. When the team needed a logo, Eskridge made one out of the lone star.